It's nice to be reminded that the U.S. church has a position on peace (we're all for it, BTW) and that the U.S. and Russia still have much unfinished business related to the end of the Cold War and the final status of our absurd nuclear weapons stockpiles. Here's one time-ordinary of the U.S. Archdiocese for Military Services and now Archbishop of Baltimore Edwin O’Brien speaking at the Feb. 3-5 Global Zero Summit in Paris, a two-day conference of political, military, business and faith leaders strategizing on the phased elimination of all nuclear weapons. Exhorting a "future free of the nuclear threat,” O'Brien said:
Although we must always keep in sight the horizon of our efforts, a world without nuclear weapons, we must also take stock of where we are and focus on the next steps in front of us. For my own nation, this requires the successful negotiation and ratification of a START follow-on treaty with the Russian Federation, the ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and the adoption of a nuclear posture that rejects the first use of nuclear weapons or their use against non-nuclear threats.
It will not be easy. Nuclear weapons can be dismantled, but both the human knowledge and the technical capability to build weapons cannot be erased. A world with zero nuclear weapons will need robust measures to monitor, enforce and verify compliance. The path to zero will be long and treacherous. But humanity must walk this path with both care and courage in order to build a future free of the nuclear threat.
Kevin Clarke
